How About a GATHERTHON For Gatherholics?

How About a GATHERTHON For Gatherholics?

I'm going to start off with, "Please don't laugh if my idea is ludicrous." If it is totally whacked out I'm going to blame it on delusion's of idiocy. This could easily be the case since I arose at 2:30 am and plopped my big rear end down in front of the computer gathering and writing. It is now going on 8:00 pm as I write this or 15 ½ hours out of control obsession. Take away two hours at the most for eating, bathroom and showering, and running to the corner store for cigarettes and cappuccinos. God, someone please help me.

To all you gatherholics, even the ones still in the closet, or the weekend partakers only, you know how long you can sit in front your computer reading, commenting, writing, and posting. Hours and hours during the day that sometimes lead all the way into the night and into the next morning. Come on. How many of you have given up an entire night of sleep to gather and mainly write for this well loved community of ours?

We've all talked about how messy our houses have become because of this online community obsession. For me, my dishes have piled up again. So I can't cook, don't have anything clean to cook with. The dirty clothes have piled up, the clean clothes have piled up on the couch, the garbage needs taking out, the floors need sweeping and vacuuming, and the toilets need scrubbed. Calgon take me away.

Recently Monica suggested the next contest winnings be a year of maid cleaning service. The is the best and most practical idea I have heard. Of course, I would at least like a chance to be in the running and that will never happen with my writing. Not with my grammar and up against remarkable writers like Ed, Hannah, Kathryn, Monica, Stephen, and the list goes on. Including all the others I haven't even read yet out of the 20,000 gatherites. Many who are professional writers.

Here is my proposal for a contest. A Gatherthon. The main idea would be the last writer, or maybe five writers, left writing by not giving up would win. Maybe Gather could post a writing prompt like, "Write about your favorite high school experience," or "There's a man sitting alone at a dinner. What is he thinking?" every three hours. Each participant would then have three hours to post a story of any kind that was at least five hundred to fifteen hundred words. Each three hours they would be prompted again and this would go on as long as it took until eventually the winner or winners were the only ones left posting.

There would have to be some guidelines to the stories but I don't think it should be about strict grammar or the most eloquently written story but who could continue to post a well written one each three hours for the longest amount of time. Gather would have to provide the prompts to prevent people from publishing already written material.

I feel a lot more people would feel free to participate who would otherwise think they would not stand a chance in some of the other contest. But that's just my crazy opinion.

Since the majority of people work on gather, I believe, but I could be sorely wrong, that also that majority works Monday through Friday. Gather could start the contest on a Friday night at 6:00 pm.

Now for my total ignorance to shine. I have no concept of the internet, servers, or if Gather's system could even track something like this. If possible, would it be hard to do? How far out of a concept is this? How many of you would be interested in participating in a contest like this to get your house cleaned for a year? How do you think the contest should work? Your idea could be totally different, much better, and far more feasible than mine. Please, let's hear it. I'm just throwing this around to see what you think.